I Spy
by okusama
Summary: ONESHOT Was Hurcule always a lying fraud and does Videl resent him at all for his actions over Cell? What was Videl's mother like? Did her parents 'get along? Just a peek into the answers for these questions....


**I Spy**

_He wasn't always like this. But I guess it's what fame and fortune and gambling and women hanging on your every word does to you. He wasn't always so arrogant and certainly never such a fraud. So I don't see what everyone else does, sometimes. My vision is blocked by the man of ten years ago. My memories of my father and mother together - those memories that no one else ever considers, as they don't care they ever existed._

_I look at Gohan and want to ask what's so different between our fathers? Why is Goku always hailed as such a saint? Neither are saints, I don't care what everyone has to say about Goku, he's amazing, but not a saint. I think Gohan has an inkling of that now, but he's bigheaded when it comes to his father, besotted._

_I ask myself would I have liked a chance to be Goku's daughter? God, I would have enjoyed the opportunity to gain such power through his Saiyan genetics, and I swear I would have made better use of them than Gohan has._

_But could I have dealt with the heartache and the constant pressure to succeed? I can't answer that so fast._

_But I guess it doesn't matter so much, I can't change it._

_He wasn't always like this._

* * *

"He wasn't always like this…" 

Videl blinked, trying to keep her eyes from stinging and consequently losing her focus on the scene she was spying on. The problem was, the keyhole really was quite small….

The young girl shifted, trying to find a place where she could see everything that was happening in the room behind the closed door. Through the small peephole she could see the top half of her mother and the back of a woman who was alien to her. She was well aware of the fact that she was doing wrong, but Papa wasn't anywhere around and she was curious…

Videl saw her mother lean forward and back quickly, probably flicking ash from her cigarette into the well-used marble dish on the table. Her Mother's friend also leaned forward but Videl saw that she instead had reached for a glass of wine.

"…Listen, at least yours _has_ a proper job…"

Her mother shifted uncomfortably and soon a scowl appeared on her face.

"If you _can _call it a proper job. What chance does he have of making a real vocation out of it, huh?"

The returning words were said too gently for Videl to hear but she could see the answer did not please her Mother.

"Satan isn't that lucky." She replied.

Videl now strained her ears to hear what her mother's friend was saying, flattening instead her ear against the keyhole to have better access.

"…You could be more understanding. Just think; if he _does_ make something of it, you could be rich!"

"That sure would be nice…not that we're really bad off now. I know I like complaining, but really it isn't so bad. I just wish I hadn't picked a husband who is such a buffoon when it comes to fighting. Honestly, why couldn't he have gone into office work? That's where the money is. Not fighting, where you have to be exceptional to get anywhere…"

"But he is! He's really good! If only you took more interest…"

"I'm too busy! What with Videl and the house and everything…"

There was silence in the room for a while. Videl yawned quietly and picked her nose, the situation was fast becoming dull. Suddenly she heard a noise, like that of a creaking chair and jerking her head to the side Videl could see her father rising from where he had been sleeping on the couch and coming towards her.

"Oh darn…" Videl said softly under her breath and drew herself slowly away from the door. Fixing a smile on her face she joined her father swiftly and took his hand smiling up at him.

Looking down at his eight-year-old daughter, Hurcule grinned and ruffled her hair as if she were a boy. "What have you been up to? Not spying again I hope?"

"No, Papa."

"Good…" Hurcule rubbed his chin, "…where's your mother?"

Videl looked towards the door that she had just been spying through and Hurcule, grabbing her hand, propelled her towards it…

* * *

"Shut up." Her mother hissed. 

"Don't talk to me like that." Her father hissed back. "I'm going to be big, just you wait and see…"

"I'm guessing I'm going to have to wait a while for _that_! You…" Videl saw her mother clench her fists; "You train all day long at that god-damned gym, come home with no money and then expect me to…!"

Videl's eyes started to water, she hated it when her parents argued, and although they didn't do it a lot, it had been getting worse these last months…

"I swear, I'm on the edge of something good! The Budokai is coming soon and I'm going to win it, and when I do…this won't happen again. …" Hurcule nodded empathically, "It won't…"

Gritting her teeth, Videl stood up higher on her tiptoes to peer through the keyhole into her parents' bedroom. She could just see her mother put her head in her hands. _Oh_, if only she were taller….

"I really hope you do win." Her mother yanked her head up, "Because if you don't, just see what I'll do."

"You spoiled little…" Hurcule wore a face of disgust, "For all you say money doesn't matter, it does, don't it? What a lair you are…"

"And you don't lie? You're faithful and honest and trustworthy…?"

"I…"

Videl moved her head away from the door and rubbed her swollen eyes. She had heard this conversation twice this week already through the same method. It seemed the only way to get any real information in the household. Videl yawned and made her way back to her room, careful not to make any noise…

* * *

"…I'm so sorry, and just after you winning too….Oh Hurcule, how much you must miss her!" 

Videl saw her father stretch and rub his eyes.

"You have no idea…God! When I think of the arguments we had over it all…Still, I did it. But…" His face contorted, "It doesn't really mean anything now she's not here to see me win…"

Videl let a sob escape her.

"What are you going to do with Videl?"

Her father closed his eyes, "Nothing."

The woman who had been speaking moved into Videl's line of vision through the keyhole. It was her Mother's friend…

"Come now, you can't expect a young girl to stay here with just a father to look after her. Girl's need mothers, you know that…"

The woman reached her hand towards her father's head, as if to caress him, but she stopped suddenly. "I miss her too. She was my best friend, and she would want me to do what's best for her child…"

Hurcule looked up. "But to send her away…? No, I can't do that. She's my little girl."

The woman sighed, "You can't just stop living because your wife has died, Hurcule."

In return, Hurcule scowled. "I haven't stopped living. I'm just not sending Videl away."

The woman now looked angry. "Don't be stupid, she'll get in the way! You're World Champion….you don't want an exacting child hanging all over you, surely?"

Videl felt a stab of pain flow through her chest. Because of it, she lost her footing and fell on the knob of the door, twisting and flinging it open….

* * *

Gohan gasped, interrupting Videl's flow of story telling, and asked, "What happened!" 

Videl turned her head from the window where she had been sitting looking out and smiled shyly.

"Well, when I fell on the door-knob I hurt my hand…so Dad took me to the hospital. I never saw the woman again."

Gohan leaned back and put his arms behind his head, "No…I mean, what did your father say to you?"

Videl's eyes widened in realisation, "Oh…you, um, mean about me spying through the door…?"

Gohan grinned and nodded.

"Oh, well, you know…" Videl looked embarrassed and said jumbled: "He wasn't…well, he was angry, very angry with me…in fact, from then, he had all the keyholes blocked…"

Gohan smiled, amused, and leaned up again, "Not surprising, but it does make a lot of other things clearer."

Videl raised her eyebrow, "Like?"

"For starter's, your inquisitiveness and passion to know exactly what's going on. You only have to remember what lengths you went to discover me out when I was Saiyaman…"

* * *

_He wasn't always like this._

* * *

**Author's note: I typed this up on a whim in about an hour. Wasn't intending on posting it - but in the end thought what the hell. Comments from you would be interesting and much loved. What's your opinion on what Videl thinks of her father? Do you think she really minded about Hurcule lying to her about Cell? This is just a taster of my thoughts...I think it's an interesting topic.: )**

**I want to take this time to thank** '**Noryale' ****for inspiring me to write again - it's meant a lot to me! Thanks!**

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